Shipping giant Maersk has made more information available about its new Boomerang service to Australia.
The service started as Thailand dealt with a slew of reports showing stubborn weakness in its exports – something Maersk politely refuted without detailing.
“Referring to the above we have seen a good growth in this trade during 2015. The launch of the service is to follow up on this development, and we expect to be able to continue to grow our presence in the trade,” Bo Wegener, Thailand Country Head for Maersk Line, told IHS Maritime.
Part of the explanation for this optimism is destination.
Thailand’s exports with China are sagging as the Chinese economy down-gears whereas Australia, where agricultural products are a key part remain firmer.
“We are launching the service to cater for the growing volume we have experienced in 2015 from existing as well as new customers,” Wegener said.
Exports from Thailand are mainly consumer products and construction industry products, he said, with imports from Australia being mainly agricultural, waste and scrap commodities.
Another part of the attraction is time. ‘Boomerang’ is the only direct service in the market from Thailand’s Laem Chabang to main ports in Australia, he pointed out.
“It offers best in class transit time to Adelaide and competitive transit time to Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane,” Wegener added.
The news came as Kasikorn Research Center slashed export growth to minus 5%, largely because of China’s cool down.
Previously the Director-General of the Trade Policy and Strategy Office Somkiat Triratpan told the official NNT news agency exports in August 2015 were 6.69% down on the same month last year Overall exports from January to August 2015 contracted 4.92%, with imports shrinking by 8.18%.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
